Rehoboth 'cries for help'

Audit reports since 2006 show that the financial control of assets and liabilities of the Rehoboth Town Council has been badly broken but the situation was never rectified and neither has anyone been held to account.
The findings of the Auditor-General for the financial years 2006 to 2010 repeat the same story: the Auditor-General is unable to form an opinion whether the financial statements fairly represent the town council’s financial position.
In short, the forensic audits revealed that the council was fraught with fraudulent activities which caused operating losses.
The audits exposed a litany of irregularities such as no reconciliation of accrued creditors, no regular reconciliation of value-added tax (VAT) control accounts, no physical stocktaking, no analysis of suspense accounts, no listing of leave and bonus provisions, no bank conciliation of the chequebook account, material differences between the ledger balance and NamWater statements, no details on internal funds provided, no auditing of opening balances of the electricity department, no supporting documentation or proof of receipt of subsidies on sundry incomes provided, monthly fluctuations on the payroll not supported or explained, no loan register, no documents provided for receipts and cash register reports, and a “surprise” cash count revealing irregularities.
Questions were raised about unexplained payments or accounts with no supporting documentation for things like street maintenance, erven sold, water and electricity purchases from NamWater and NamPower, fixed assets, the council’s payroll and investments.
No explanation was given why no stocktaking was done, why there were no records for leave and bonuses paid to staff, why there were no records of cash and bank accounts or payrolls, why recordings were made of loans that do not exist, why there was no register of loans granted and why there was no record of the Build Together project.
The sum total of these irregularities in financial reporting for the 2006 to 2010 financial years was that more than N$58 million was unexplained, not reported and no documentation provided for.
Reports for the financial years ending in 2011, 2012 and 2013 also observed that there were insufficient internal financial controls and insufficient or no supporting documents provided for auditing purposes.
In 2012, former AG Junias Kandjeke expressed reservations whether the Rehoboth Town Council could continue as a going concern.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) had also unearthed financial irregularities and suspicious tender allocations at the council and asked that the then Ministry of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development intervene.
In June 2012 chaos erupted at the town when NamWater cut off its water supply due to an outstanding water debt of close to N$30 million.
A public meeting held in response to the water crisis was held that same month, where a 10-person Joshua Generation Community Development Committee was formed to investigate the council’s financial woes.
This committee met with the then Prime Minister Nahas Angula to highlight the financial irregularities and their impact on development at the town. Angula promised to look into the matter but nothing has been done so far.
“The town is dying but no one is listening to our cries for help,” said a resident of the town who preferred anonymity.
Yet another forensic investigation, now known as the Adonai Report, conducted between June and December 2009, revealed a number of financial irregularities and implicated a number of council staff.
The former mayor of Rehoboth, Eva Maasdorp, in 2012 stated that this report had several legal and procedural issues which would make it difficult to prosecute anyone solely on the basis thereof.
The report was nonetheless handed over to the ACC for consideration.
The chief investigating officer at the ACC, Nelius Becker, could by yesterday not say whether this report was investigated because he could not trace the file.
CATHERINE SASMAN